This invention relates to an exposure method, a device manufacturing method and an exposure apparatus, wherein an exposure process-for a substrate such as a wafer is performed after one or more sample shot processes are carried out thereto.
The wafer processing procedure for producing xe2x80x9cexposed wafersxe2x80x9d mainly comprises sample shot processes such as global tilting for removing any tilt of a wafer and global alignment for positioning the wafer, as well as an exposure process. Many attempts have been made to shorten the time required for each process, to thereby improve the productivity of xe2x80x9cexposed wafersxe2x80x9d, that is, the throughput.
However, as regards the time for transition from a certain sample shot process to another sample shot process or the time for transition from a sample shot process to an exposure process (hereinafter, xe2x80x9ctransition timexe2x80x9d), no particular attention has been paid thereto because it is very short as compared with the time required for each sample shot process itself.
It is an object of the present invention to enable shortening of such transition time to thereby increase the throughput.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an exposure method, an exposure apparatus and/or a device manufacturing method by which the transition time is shortened.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon a consideration of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.